The Cool 2 Be Kind chapter at Northwood was recently founded by senior Taylor Puckett. Puckett put the student organization together “on the basis of setting up a safe space for people with a common interest in anti-bullying.” Cool 2 Be Kind currently has around 60 members and the only requirement for wanting to join is the common interest of wanting to put an end to bullying. Puckett knew she wanted to start the organization after having witnessed and experienced bullying herself.
Puckett has personally been affected by bullying. “I have an older sister who has been bullied to a point where she tried to take her own life her junior year, and I myself have been bullied,” she said. “But when I saw my little sister being bullied I knew I needed to do something about it.”
Since Puckett is a senior, she hopes to leave the organization in a good place. She hopes it will grow and that more upperclassmen will become involved.
“I have a lot of friends in Cool To Be Kind and they asked me if I wanted to join the club even though I didn’t really know what it was about,” junior Henry Taylor said. “But I figured since it was an anti-bullying club that it would be for a good cause.”
Taylor says that students who are on the fence about joining can test it out first. “If you are not sure if you want to join, come to at least one meeting and see if you vibe with the people that are there. If not, then you do you, but anti-bullying is a great cause.”
“I joined because of Taylor Puckett and (because) the idea for this club is really good… I am kind of sad that I did not come up with it first, but I’d really like to make a difference at Northwood,” junior Hallie Arnott said.
Both Arnott and Taylor believe in the idea of making Northwood a more bully-conscious community, and that Cool To Be Kind is a good first step. For Puckett, Cool to be Kind has been a way for her to make sure that incidents like what her family has been through can be prevented in the near future.
“Being inclusive of everyone is super important, especially in a high school,” Arnott said. “The best thing about the club is talking with all of the people in there because they all want to make a difference at Northwood and getting to see the other sides to people is really nice.” She believes that “we (students) are on the right track but we need to just keep building.” Although more upperclassmen are needed, the organization has attracted interest from all grade levels. Puckett hopes that the organization’s participation rates will rise with each school year.
Although it is only in its second year, over 60 students joined the club as of first semester.
Cool To Be Kind meets every Monday until four pm. Spanish teacher Senor Lupoli helped Puckett start the Cool To Be Kind chapter at Northwood by offering his classroom for the biweekly meetings. As Henry Taylor says, “The meetings are a little unstructured still, but that’s a part of it being a new club.”
Puckett believes that Cool To Be Kind is allowing her to have a positive impact on Northwood’s future. She hopes that the club will only continue to grow and develop, and eventually become one of the most active and popular clubs on campus.
-By Liam Scott
